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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Romans

Robbing Temples

Paul writes to Jews, “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” (Romans 2:22b) The English translation “rob temples” makes readers think of pagan temples. There was only one Temple for Israel, so robbing more than one would indicate other temples are in view. And if the Jews wanted to…

by Mark HorneOctober 15, 2024
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Genesis

Regarding Abel’s Offering

Two offerings Humanity’s first vocation involves guarding and serving the trees that emerge from the ground (Genesis 2:15). God provides these trees to humanity for food. A serpent appears and tempts the couple to eat from a special forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Humanity…

by Scott FairbanksOctober 3, 2024
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Hermeneutics

The Trinity and Cross in Creation

At the outset of the Torah (as Christians understand it), a triune God creates the heavens and earth over the course of a seven-day week. Why? What’s the connection between the three and the seven? Could a triune God have created the world over any period of time he chose?…

by James BejonOctober 1, 2024
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Deuteronomy

Axe Heads and Parapets: Legal Edge Cases?

How relevant to the modern reader are the flying axe head of Deuteronomy 19:5 and the roof parapet of Deuteronomy 22:8? Indeed, how relevant were they to the daily lives of Israelites thirty-five hundred years ago? Suppose that accidental falls from rooftops were exceedingly uncommon in ancient Israel, or that…

by Josh JensenSeptember 24, 2024
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Political Theology

The Church Builds the World

1 For most of my life, the standing of the American church as a source of national social and political order was measured by reports from the front of the so-called “culture wars.” 2 Memory brings to mind battles over feminism and the ERA, so-called gay rights, the breakdown of…

by Gary YoungSeptember 17, 2024
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Matthew

That He would be called a Nazarene

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel…’ And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the…

by Lyndon JostSeptember 10, 2024

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Science

Rats

A recent issue of Science News reports that rats live longer if they are constantly stimulated by novelty. Rats that have nothing to look forward to but another day in the maze or on the wheel die sooner. That may say something about human beings, but it certainly gives us…

December 23, 2003

Glastonbury

In offering his nominations for “Books of the Year,” Tom Shippey (TLS, Dec 5) tells the following story: “Some years ago a Farmborough biker with an interest in the occult climbed Glastonbury Tor and asked the Goddess to help him find Excalibur before the next full moon. The day before…

December 23, 2003

Unity

How is it that the unity of the Church shows the world that the Father has sent the Son, as Jesus says in John 17? There are doubtless many dimensions to this, but here’s one possibility: The unity of the disciples, the way they share their lives together in harmony…

December 21, 2003

Sadler on the Gospel

Rich Lusk of the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, LA, put me onto the works of M.F. Sadler, a late 19th-century Anglican theologian, and I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve found there. For example: In the first chapter of his Church Doctrine, Bible Truth , Sadler points out…

December 21, 2003

Eucharistic Meditation, December 21

Eucharistic Meditation for Fourth Sunday in Advent: I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon today the error that some Christians have fallen into of resting the whole of our redemption on the incarnation itself. They treat Christmas as if it were detachable from the life of Jesus, from Good…

December 21, 2003

Exhortation, December 21

Exhortation for Fourth Sunday in Advent: For many the Christmas season is not a time of good cheer but almost the opposite. It’s a time of frustration, anxiety, bad temper, family strife, and disappointed expectations. It’s a time when kids eat too much candy, which leads first to hyperactivity and…

December 21, 2003

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